D E P AR TME NT O F P L AN T A ND S O I L S CI EN CE
The Tiller
Plants & Soil: Tools for a Cleaner Environment
Annual Newsletter Fall 2013
WELCOME, FROM THE CHAIR
This last year I filled in as PSS Acting Chair, while Deb Neher was on sabbatical. Between the Spring and Fall of 2013 we had an average of 42 Ecological Agriculture and 26 Sustainable Landscape Horticulture majors, for a total of 67 majors this academic year. Including an increased number of PSS-related minors. Our graduate program maintained its total number of 25 students and continues to grow stronger. PSS faculty and students continued to actively participate in a variety of food system and plant and soil science projects, ranging from research and extension on climate change impacts on Vermont agriculture, to interactions between earthworms and carbon in the northern forest. This last year also saw a good number of PSS community-building events that brought us together to get to know each other better and enjoy good food. Keep an eye out for these types of events this coming year ! V. Ernesto Mendez
We are proud of Anne-Marie Resnik, who got a much deserved CALS Excellence in Staff Support Award. We were also saddened by the departure of Dr. Jon Turmel, who had lectured for our department for almost 2 decades, and was much loved and appreciated by faculty and students. We wish him all the best in his new endeavors in Washington State. I have really enjoyed leading the PSS department this year, and to have had a chance to further interact with all of you. I also wanted to thank you for bearing with me through my first experience as department chair. Special thanks are due to Anne-Marie Resnik, Pat Englert and Whitney Northrop (PSS staff), Martha Caswell, Kate Westdijk and all the ARLG members, who provided the necessary support to get it all done. I am also grateful to everyone in the CALS dean's office for their invaluable support. It is now time to pass on the baton back to Deb and for me to go and enjoy my own sabbatical. I wish you all the best in the coming year ! Ernesto Mendez
The Tiller, Fall 2013
Welcome back Deb Neher!
The Department is gearing up for its 50th Anniversary in 2014. We would love to hear your suggestions and ideas. Send an email to pss@uvm.edu or post to Facebook Facebook.com/PSS.UVM
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Inside this issue: Chair Welcome
2
Plant Diagnostic News
4
Horticulture Farm
6
Accolades
8
Class Matters
10
Research
12
The Tiller Annual newsletter for:
Current Faculty
The Department of Plant and Soil Science Jeffords Hall, 63 Carrigan Drive
John Aleong - Applied Statistics
Sidney Bosworth - Field & Forage Crops
Yolanda Chen - Insect Agroecology
Josef Gorres - Ecological Soil Mgmt.
Vladimir Gouli - Insect Pathology
Ann Hazelrigg - Plant Pathology
Stephanie Hurley– Landscape Design
Ernesto Mendez - Agricultural Systems
Scott C. Merrill - Entomology
Deborah Neher - Soil Ecology
Bruce Parker - Entomology
Jason Parker– Agricultural Anthropology
Leonard Perry - Ornamental Horticulture
Donald Ross - Soil Chemistry
Margaret Skinner - Entomology
Mark Starrett - Horticulture/Landscape
The Tiller, Fall 2013
Burlington, Vermont 05405-1737 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences University of Vermont Editors Anne Marie Resnik, Deb Neher Contributors, Terry Bradshaw, Rebecca Bourgault, Ann Hazelrigg, Stephanie Hurley, Sarah KingsleyRichards, Ernesto Mendez, Anne Marie Resnik Photographers Rebecca Bourgault Whitney Northrop Rachel Schattman
News from the UVM Plant Diagnostics Clinic By Plant Pathologist, Ann Hazelrigg.
We have a new person assisting in the Clinic, Gabriella Maia. Gabriella has a Masters Degree from Florida in Plant Pathology. She has been invaluable helping with disease diagnostics and uploading disease and insect sample information including lots of great microscope images of fungi, to the National Plant Diagnostics Network (NPDN) database. She has also provided assistance on current research projects on organic apple management systems, compost bioassays for persistent pesticides and a multi-state weed and climate change research project. Gabriella is in the Clinic about 20 hours a week and is a great addition to the team! The Clinic has been busy this season with lots of plant diseases and insect problems from commercial growers, landscapers, Master Gardeners and the general public. The wet period earlier in the summer was perfect for all sorts of fungi to flourish and we have seen lots of leafspots, blights and mildews. Late blight of tomato and potato was diagnosed in July but so far as not been too widespread throughout the state. Our Plant Diagnostic samples will continue to climb until we breathe a sigh of relief at the first killing frost. We are also involved in a new research project looking at the effect of three organic apple management programs on disease and arthropod pests at the Horticulture Research Center.
Welcome Gabriella Maia, newest member of the Plant Diagnostics team. She has her Masters degree in Plant Pathology from University of Florida.
The three programs include; 1) conventional organic management program using copper and sulfur and organic insecticides 2) conventional organic management with copper and reduced sulfur during rapid shoot elongation and 3) a Holistic Orchard Management system that uses no copper or sulfur and instead uses plant teas, essential microbes and Neem oil. Disease and arthropod incidence and severity are being measured and replicated on 3 cultivars. Harvest data and tree growth data are also being measured. The project will be replicated in summer 2014.
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The Horticulture Research Center 97 Acres of Research, Horticulture, Farming, and Outreach The University of Vermont Horticulture Research Center, also known as the "Hort Farm," is home for many trees, shrubs, perennials, apples and small fruit. More than 700 kinds of ornamental trees and shrubs, many of them uncommon or unique, are planted at the Hort. Farm. One of the largest known mature ornamental lilac and rhododendron collections in the Northeast is located here. Purchased in the early 1950s, the 97-acre Hort Farm is used for agricultural research and instruction of UVM classes, and by professional plant organizations and gardening groups. For over 50 years, University horticulturists have been testing new and unusual plants for their adaptation to the Vermont environment, especially to our cold winters.
Growing up on a central Vermont dairy farm, apples were part of the landscape, but not the focus, for HRC Assistant Director Terry Bradshaw. After graduating from Plant & Soil Science in 1996, he worked in commercial apple orchards around the state and soon found himself fascinated enough to come back to UVM as an intern under Dr. Lorraine Berkett and her Apple Team. The team’s research in 2000 was a multi-year project assessing the performance of a novel, organically-acceptable replacement to traditional insecticides. By 2006 the project had grown into an Organic Apple Research Project (OrganicA) that assesses the horticultural, pest management, and economic feasibility of organic apple production in the northeastern United States. Along the way, enough data was gathered to yield a Master’s thesis for Terry; "Assessment of Kelp Extract Biostimulants in a Temperate-climate Organic Apple Orchard".
The Apple Team branched out in 2007 with the establishment of a research vineyard at the Hort Farm. The vineyard is part of a multi-state research project to evaluate performance of newer, cold-hardy winegrape cultivars. This vineyard represents the coldest winter and coolest growing season conditions of any of the sites in the East. Research is being conducted to determine which cultivars not only consistently survive Vermont's winters, but which are least vulnerable to spring frosts, and which will consistently ripen within Vermont's short growing season. Data on cold hardiness, disease incidence and severity, arthropod pest damage and population levels, beneficial arthropod levels, vine growth and development, and harvest and yield data is tracked over the growing season. Yearly practices include tenting the vineyard in netting to keep the birds away from fruit while allowing easy access the vines. The netting only goes up as the fruit start to ripen and is taken down for the winter. Each year the team hosts growers and interested parties at the vineyard for a well received annual field day. As part of a New England wide project, plant pathologist Ann Hazelrigg is working closely with the team monitoring for the presence of Spotted Wing Drosophila, an invasive fruit fly that affects soft-bodied fruits (SWD). PSS has added viticulture to the roster of summer classes, a Cold-Climate Viticulture course was taught to eight eager students this past summer. Student experience in crop production varied from new undergraduates with interest but no experience in farming; several entrepreneurs in their initial stages of vineyard planning and development; and the manager of a vineyard in southern Vermont who was seeking to expand the planting. Course evaluations were very positive.
The Tiller, Fall 2013
Pictured left, T. Bradshaw. Below: Morgan Griffith, Terry Bradshaw, Sarah Kingsley Richards, Apple & Grape Team members.
Terry began work this fall on his Ph.D., with a research focus on a complete analysis of the OrganicA project. His goal is to conduct field-based research and outreach projects for Vermont fruit growers that address their changing needs in the face of changing environmental and economic times. He lives in Calais, VT with his wife Julie, six year-old daughter Alice, two goats, and a dog. Sarah Kingsley-Richards, (pictured, right) is an integral part of the Apple Team as a Research Technician. Her responsibilities include coordination of multiple research projects, laboratory and data management, grant preparation support, and database and website administration. She works closely with the Plant Diagnostic Clinic. Sarah has a M.S. from Plant & Soil Science studying cold hardiness in perennials and a B.S. in Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, UVM.
The UVM Farms reutilization project proposes upgrades to our Horticulture teaching and research center with new state of the art facilities, an essential step to implement CALS’ strategic planning initiatives for the next decade.
Planned Renovations at the University of Vermont Horticulture Research and Education Center Facilitate increased research activities Create higher quality student experience and increased experiential learning opportunities Provide the needed physical infrastructure to align our facilities with new initiatives in food systems
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Accolades
Undergraduate Graduate
Congratulations to our graduates: John Bruce
Taylor Lawrence
Alysia Bushey
Amber Liljeholm
Connor Eaton
Mark Paulsen
Marielle Fisher
Meredith Porter
Rebecca Frye
Molly Sanborn
Alexander Howe
James Seymour
Sam Hughes
Stephanie Thresher
Buddy Koener
Brian VanDeWeert
Sarah Kresock May 2013 Graduation. Professor Mark Starrett with some of our students.
Graduate Degrees
Justin Geibel, M.S. Advisor Don Ross. “Effects of Drainage Water Management on Phosphorus Loss from a Tile-drained Field in Northern New York”
Katie Goodall, Ph.D. Advisor V. Ernesto Mendez. “Conservation, Agroecology and Livelihoods: Shade trees, Birds and Farmer Decisions in Smallholder Coffee Cooperatives of Northern Nicaragua”
Victor Izzo, Ph.D. Advisor Yolanda Chen. “The Wild Wild pest: An Investigation of the Ecophysiological Adaptations of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata"
Bridgett Jamison, M.S. Advisor Sid Bosworth. “Evaluation of Raw Milk as a Forage Biostimulant"
Katlyn Morris, Ph.D. Advisor V. Ernesto Mendez. “Food Security, Agricultural Management Practices, and Conservation In A Salvadoran Organic Coffee Cooperative"
Tharshani Nishanthan, Ph.D. Advisor Deborah Neher. “Ecology Of Soybean Cyst Nematode-Suppressive Soils In Midwest SoybeanCropping Systems"
Meryl B. Richards, Ph.D. Advisor V. Ernesto Mendez. “Agrobiodiversity, Conservation, and Food Security Among Small-Scale Coffee Farmers in El Salvador”
Kristin Williams, M.S. Advisor Deborah Neher. “Nemotode Communities as Indicators of Environmental Impact of Road Design”
Jon Turmel shares a laugh with Kit and Chet Parsons during his going away party. The Tiller, Fall 2013
Jon Turmel, adjunct lecturer of Entomology for 17 years, was also the Vermont state entomologist. Now retired from both jobs, rumor has it he’s fly fishing somewhere, but like all good fisherman, he won’t say where. We miss you Jon, good luck in your retirement!
PSS office staff member Anne Marie Resnik was honored with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences yearly staff award.
Honors and Awards Pictured left : Sam Hughes and John Bruce with the Burlington Garden Club Award, on the left with Sam is club member Marti Webster, to the right with John is Mary Scollins.
John Bruce holding all four of his awards, American Society for Horticulture Science, Outstanding Horticulture Student, The James E. Ludlow Scholarship Fund and a Teaching Assistant Award
Zachary Noel with Extension Professor Vernon Grubinger being presented with the Vermont Vegetable & Berries Award.
Professor Mark Starrett with Zachary Noel. Zach was also the recipient of Distinguished Undergraduate Research Status. In April 2013, his research was chosen by the American Phytopathological Society to receive the Frank L. Howard Undergraduate Research Fellowship Award.
Samuel Hughes (left) and
Donald Keith III is one of five recipients of the Professional Grounds Management Society scholarships this year.
Great Job All!
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Dropping in on some classes…. Assistant Professor Stephanie Hurley’s class, Ecological Landscape Design worked on two different projects with Vermont stakeholders interested in integrating natural systems into their landscapes. In Burlington, our students developed design ideas for the schoolyard and gardens around the Sustainability Academy, a public elementary school in the Old North End neighborhood. UVM students visited the school on several occasions; the needs and interests expressed by the community informed the class’s designs. A wide variety of landscape elements were depicted, including outdoor education spaces, a food forest, a geology wall, a chicken coop, natural playgrounds, and areas for parents and visitors to gather outside the school entrances. The class presented its ideas to parents, students, and teachers at the end of the semester and received a lot of positive feedback. Principal Brian Williams said this in a letter to Dr. Hurley: “The Sustainability Academy's schoolyard transformation project received a tremendous boost from the energy and efforts of students from the UVM Ecological Landscape Design class… The students dedication to listening to our dreams, considering the obstacles, and producing inspired and inspiring designs will guide our planning for years to come... Most importantly, our students got to interact with the UVM students and this is a critical step in helping them begin to visualize a future where they pursue higher education.”
The second project for the UVM class was in an entirely different setting. Students were charged with researching and designing a meadow restoration on the property of Southface Condominiums—a development near the Sugarbush Ski Area in Warren, Vermont. Property owners sought creative and scientifically-sound design ideas for restoring to a naturalistic condition what had been mowed as a lawn for more than twenty years. The students’ proposals for the landscape—which also addressed a wetland and stream corridor adjacent to the meadow—were aimed at increasing the habitat value of the area, using less fuel for property maintenance and, ultimately, integrating ecology with aesthetics through design. Students recommended native vegetation suited to the local landscape and also included landscape elements that would benefit the Southface community; these ranged from interpretive overlooks, woodland boardwalks, informal and formal gathering spaces, and recreational trails interwoven within the meadow. After reviewing the students’ work, stakeholders were impressed and enthusiastic. Zeke Church, the Southface property manager, remarked that the meadow restoration would be a long-term transitional project, but he could imagine many of the students’ ideas coming to fruition. In June, Mr. Church reported to Dr. Hurley the following:
Top, out in the field, with TA Annie White. Middle, laboring in the design lab. Bottom, Stephanie Hurley with her students handiwork.
“There were so many wildflower species present that we could almost fill a guidebook... As we were heading out of the meadow I was in the middle of a sentence saying how had we been mowing these blooms wouldn’t have been here, when we flushed a Bobolink at our feet, and we found the nest and eggs... Now that’s a nest that certainly wouldn’t have been there, so already, in a small way, we can feel good about enhancing habitat. Birds, bees, butterflies...in places that they would have had no interest in being. We’re ready to start defining our ongoing plan. Thanks again for all your input.” The Tiller, Fall 2013
The XIV International Agroecology Shortcourse, was cosponsored by UVM’s Agroecology and Rural Livelihood Group (ARLG) – led by PSS professor Ernesto Méndez, and the Community Agroecology Network (CAN) – a nonprofit organization founded by agroecology pioneer Dr. Stephen R. Gliessman and his wife, environmental educator, Robbie Jaffe. CAN is based in Santa Cruz, California and works in partnership with Mesoamerican community-based organizations, farmers’ cooperatives, nonprofits, and universities to generate local approaches to sustainable development. More information about the history of the courses, which started in 1999, can be found here.
This year’s course’s theme was Agroecological Approaches for Climate Change and Food Systems Resilience. The course brought together 38 participants from Mexico, Australia, England and all over the US, including UVM students, professors, extensionists and others working in nonprofit organizations. For two weeks in early July, participants engaged in intensive classroom and outdoor learning. Topics ranged from ecological foundations to food sovereignty to climate change best management practices, and the resilience of all the participants was tested as full days continued into nights out enjoying Vermont’s incredible local food scene.
Because cogeneration of knowledge is a core principal of agroecology and participatory action research (PAR), instructors, students, farmers and friends were encouraged to learn and experience topics as a working team. The group was divided into five farm teams and spent significant time listening, weeding, walking and questioning farmers at Bella Farm, The Farm Between, Diggers’ Mirth Collective Farm, Intervale Community Farm and Jericho Settlers Farm. Guest instructors included a diversity of academics and practitioners from Vermont institutions, several UVM units, Santa Clara University, the University of Chapingo and the Intercultural University, both in Mexico. Presenters shared experiences from Malawi, Southern Mexico, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, which were compared and contrasted to what was being observed in Vermont and participants’ own experiences.
In the words of Steve Gliessman, “Concepts such as resilience, sovereignty, and sustainability took on new meaning when they were linked across natural and social science knowledge systems. Tools such as networking, geographic information systems, and participatory action research could be seen as important ways of promoting food-system change. And actions such as climate mitigation, alternative market development, and social movements could all be seen as important means of food-system transformation.” Read more from his 2013 course report and keep an eye out for continued offerings of the Agroecology Shortcourse in Vermont in coming years.
Student numbers continue to follow an upward trajectory. Fall 2013 enrollment was 68 majors, 50 minors, & 25 graduate students.
Learning about rice production from New Farms for New Americans representative Rita Neopaney
Hardy Kiwi vine on the south wall of Jeffords Hall Page 11
Recent Research and Publications Hydropedology is an inter-disciplinary science that examines the linkages between soils and water, especially how they interact to influence processes in the earth’s critical zone. Rebecca Bourgault, Ph.D. candidate, and her advisor, Don Ross, are part of an inter-disciplinary team of scientists who are conducting a hydropedologic investigation of Watershed 3 at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of central New Hampshire. Hubbard Brook has been at the forefront of long-term ecological monitoring, biogeochemistry and hydrology research for over 50 years, and in the 1980s was the first place that acid rain was discovered. However, until now, there has been little research documenting soils from a pedologic (or hydropedologic) standpoint. The Watershed 3 hydropedology team, which also includes US Forest Service research geologist Scott Bailey; Virginia Tech hydrologists Kevin McGuire and JP Gannon, and GIS specialist Cody Gillin; and USGS geochemist Tom Bullen, was awarded a 3-year NSF-Hydrologic Sciences grant in 2010. The idea was to peer inside the “black box” of soils in the catchment and gain a better understanding of how catchment structure affects catchment function. More specifically, they wanted to better understand relationships between soil formation, chemistry, and hillslope-scale groundwater dynamics and how these interact to produce observed spatial variations in headwater stream chemistry. Watershed 3 was chosen because it is a forested headwater hydrologic reference catchment that has not had any experimental manipulations or logging for over 100 years. Over the past several years, more than 100 soil profiles have been excavated, described, sampled, and analyzed for extractable metals and organic carbon. Hydrologic instruments (including auto-recording piezometers and lysimeters) have been installed throughout the catchment to monitor dynamics in groundwater flow and chemistry. Ground water isotopes have been analyzed to determine sources and residence times. Silene DeCiucies, summer field assistant digs a soil pit in Watershed 3. Digging in glacial till soils of the White Mountains is great exercise due to the quantity of large rock fragments and tree roots.
The researchers have made many intriguing observations since the project began three years ago. Five unique soil types have been recognized in the catchment and called Hydropedologic Units (HPUs). This classification does not rely on USDA Soil Taxonomy, but the HPUs are distinctly different from each other with regards to morphology and chemical composition. These differences result from unique water table regimes that are a function of subsurface (bedrock and till) topography, distance to streams, and other topographic factors. As a result, HPUs tend to have predictable spatial patterns in the catchment. Classic, vertically developed Spodosols occur in about 60% of the catchment, on steep, linear backslopes where vertical, unsaturated groundwater flow is dominant. These soils have relatively thin E and Bhs (dark red spodic) horizons. Following storm events, groundwater tends to move laterally due to steep slopes and shallow, coarse-textured soils. This lateral flow is thought to produce lateral soil formation in about 40% of the watershed. Lateral flow appears to be the factor leading to the formation of soils that have very thick spodic horizons with large quantities of metals (Al, Fe, Mn, and rare earth elements) and metal-bound carbon translocated from upslope. These laterally developed soils occur on gentler slopes where water and soil materials accumulate, such as riparian zones of ephemeral and perennial streams. Lateral soil formation is a relatively new concept in pedology, but it has tremendous implications for spatial predictions of soil and water chemistry, and practical applications to soil survey efforts. In addition, Hubbard Brook ecologists are interested in using HPU information to predict spatial patterns in distribution of organisms. For more information: Hubbard Brook Hydropedology Project
The Tiller, Fall 2013
Fresh Ink This is a sampling of recent publications by our faculty and graduate students. To see the full listing, visit our Research web page.
Bradshaw, T.L., Berkett, L.P., Griffith, M.C., Kingsley-Richards, S.L., Darby, H.M., Parsons, R.L., Moran, R.E. and Garcia, M.E. 2013. Assessment of kelp extract biostimulants on arthropod incidence and damage in a certified organic apple orchard. Acta Hort. 1001:139145.
Sangha, J. S., Chen,Y. H., J. Kaur, W. Khan, Z. Abduljaleel, M. Alanazi, A. Mills, C. B. Adalla, J. Bennett, H. Leung. 2013. Proteome Analysis of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Mutants reveals candidate genes for resistance to brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens) Infestation. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Special Issue Abiotic and Biotic Stress Tolerance Mechanisms in Plants. 14:3921-3945.
Morris, K.S., MĂŠndez, V.E., S.T. Lovell & M. Olson 2013. Conventional food plot management in an organic coffee cooperative: explaining the paradox. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems 37(7): 762-787.
Neher, D.A., Asmussen, D., and Lovell, S.T. 2013. Roads in northern hardwood forests affect adjacent plant communities and soil chemistry in proportion to maintained roadside area. Science of the Total Environment. 449: 320-327.
Lawrence, G.B., I.J. Fernandez, D. deB. Richter, Ross D.S., P.W. Hazlett, S.W. Bailey, R. Oiumet, R.A.F. Warby, A.H. Johnson, H. Lin, J.M. Kaste, A.G. Lapenis, and T.J. Sullivan. 2013. Measuring environmental change in forest ecosystems by repeated soil sampling: a North American perspective. Journal of Environmental Quality 42(3): 623-639.
Above left, Rebecca Bourgault. Below; Conceptual diagram of hydropedological units (HPUs) in watershed 3. Each HPU is classified by the presence and thickness of particular soil horizons found in podzols (Spodosols). Diagram by Kevin McGuire.
The results of this research emphasize the need to examine the mechanisms of soil and water interactions at the hillslope and catchment scales. Catchments are complex systems, but natural variability and catchment function can be better understood and predicted using an interdisciplinary, hydropedologic approach.
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